The Carousel

This book is about the Grey family of Upstate New York. Oliver Grey presides over a group including his two sons, Ian and Clive, Ian's wife Happy and Oliver's nephew Dan and his wife Sally and his children Tina and Susannah. Oliver's niece Amanda is also in the picture, but she lives in California and does not visit.The main story involves Dan's family who find out that Tina has been molested, but they don't want to believe it. A secondary story involves Grey's woods which Ian wants to sell so that they can make money. Ian and Amanda are the only two because Dan and Clive don't want to sell.The next story involves Ian, Happy and Clive. Even though Ian is happily married he likes to sleep around. He has had a mistress for the last three years named Roxanne. They are happy, but then she wants him to leave his wife but he wont. She brakes it off and goes after Clive. They get married, but after a while Roxanne and Ian start sleeping with each other again and she gets pregnant.The Climax of the story comes in December, which involves all these storylines. Amanda comes to visit Dan and tells Sally something that makes her think about Tina's situation and goes to visit Oliver. He is cleaning stuff and suddenly a gun goes off, killing Oliver.Who killed Oliver Grey?-That is something that gets answered at the end of the book.

I have been an avid Belva Plain fan since the summer of 1996. That was when I was first introduced to her works and I can honestly say I have never once been disappointed. The characters are richly and vividly drawn and the story lines overlap and mesh together well. The family patriarch, Oliver Grey has a major flaw -- he is a pedophile. He not only has abused his granddaughter, Tina, he has also abused a niece many years earlier. Sally, the mother of Tina and the daughter-in-law of Oliver, wisely believes Tina when the child finally discloses what her grandfather had been doing to her. The only thing I had trouble with was when Sally told Tina that she [Tina] "mustn't let anybody touch her" if she didn't want them to. For pity's sake, a child cannot fend off an adult predator and to even suggest the child let her grandfather touch her improperly smacks of blame. This was a five-year-old, not an adult contemporary. She did not want, welcome or like what the man did to her and it is never the child's fault. Children don't LET adult predators hurt them. That was the only part I had trouble with. I also wondered why Daniel and Sally didn't talk to Tina first when they had reason to believe something was amiss. It seemed that communication was a long time coming, but it was wonderful once it did.I liked the way the reader was kept guessing. One never knew which way the family business would turn. Would environmental or business interests be chosen? A combination? And who really killed Oliver Grey? This is an excellent book and I would highly recommend it. I loved it.

I found this story to be both engaging and tragic, but in some places not wholly believable. Still, it is a good read. The characters are well-developed, and it definitely keeps the reader feeling involved. If you are a fan of Belva Plain, like me, you will find this book well worth your time.

I REALLY ENJOYED THIS BOOK. THE AUTHOR REALLY MAKES YOU CARE ABOUT THE CHARACTERS. I RECOMMEND THIS TO SOMEONE WHO LOVES TO READ ABOUT DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES! THIS BOOK MAKES YOUR OWN FAMILY SEEM VERY NORMAL.

Plain's writing is simple and straightforward, good if you've had a hard day in the trenches, and need to be reminded that other folks also live a life like a penny awful. The story itself is engaging, but not so complex that you can't put it down to fish the dog out of the tulip bed, and come back to discover you are totally lost to what's going on in the book. This work reminds me of something Danielle Steele would write on a slow day, similar in texture, but rather langui